Starting Today
by Saori Aki Orimi
Summary: Originally a oneshot about yamis, hikaris, and 'chan.' Ryou, Bakura, Malik, and Marik are dragged to another dimension. What they find there? Read and find out!


Starting Today

* * *

Mutou Yugi was not quite sure what was going on. In the last few hours his world had turned upside down.

It had started when a new girl appeared in their class. Black hair, black eyes, tall. Started out by sitting right next to Ryou and poking him. Repeatedly. Until the poor boy was so flustered Bakura came out and told her to fuck off.

Then she proceeded to pester Malik, who got annoyed and told her to piss off without even the interference of his yami, and then the bell rang, which was probably a good thing as she had been headed his way.

The teacher didn't seem to notice her, at least not as a new class member or anything. It was as if she'd been there all year. Which, as Yugi knew, was not true. She'd just appeared during the lunch hour.

After school, though, was when real chaos struck like a whirlwind.

"Hi! I'm Paruke Reikone!" she said, trotting over to them.

"Um... Hi?" Yugi had greeted her. Jonouchi and Honda had looked at her strangely, then everyone introduced themselves warily. Anzu proceeded to depart to her job, Honda and Jonouchi said that there were some punks from another class who needed roughing up, and then Yugi, Malik, and Ryou had been left with her.

Yugi wasn't sure at what point during the conversation they had ended up where they were now (an empty white room... similar to what you'd find in a psychiatric ward. It was strangely appropriate, now that he thought of it.)

Of course, it couldn't really just be called a 'conversation' as it had involved some enraged chases by Bakura and Marik after she threw some strange exploding devices she called 'acorn grenades' at Malik and Ryou.

Even Yami didn't know what to make of it.

Which brought him to the point they were at now, which involved Bakura and Marik being shocked into silence as they were separated from Ryou and Malik. Yami, too, was in his spirit form next to Yugi. And a shorter, red-eyed girl was standing next to Reikone.

"What... is it this room?" Yami asked carefully.

"Yup!" Reikone answered.

"It separates yami from hikari." the spirit girl next to Reikone said. "So, in case you didn't notice, I'm Reikone's yami." She paused and scowled. "That means I'm forced to be the insubstantial one." she muttered. "Anyhow, I'm Sao! You've already met Rei-chan."

"You call your hikari 'chan?'" Bakura asked disbelievingly.

"Umn, yeah, I live in her _head_. If that's not close enough to call her 'chan,' what is?"

That made sense, but Bakura looked unconvinced.

"Must be a girl thing." he muttered.

"Nah." Reikone said. "She's my sister, after all."

"What!" all six of them, yami and hikari alike, chorused.

"How did that happen?" Yami asked.

"This dimension hates us." Sao said blithely.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Marik demanded.

"Never mind!" Sao chimed, wearing a 'you never heard anything!' face. Marik looked suspicious but dropped the issue.

"I dare you to call your hikaris 'chan!'" Reikone chirped suddenly, looking thrilled with the idea. Yugi's mind was abruptly wrenched from the previous strange things they had said to the issue at hand.

"What!" Bakura demanded, as Ryou blushed and Malik looked shocked. Yami had gone mysteriously silent, and Marik appeared to think that the female hikari had gone insane. Actually, her own yami was looking at her as if she'd gone insane.

"Double-dare you." she chirped, obviously not caring about the strange looks she was getting.

"There's no point!" Bakura cried.

"Triple-dare you, and you're a weenie if you don't!"

"What?" he sputtered, managing to look very inconvenienced.

"Call Ryou 'chan!'"

Sao started bashing her head against the bare white wall.

"My hikari is insane, my hikari is insane, my hikari is insane," could be heard.

"Weeeeeeenie." Reikone started chanting.

"Rei-chan–!" Sao warned.

"See? It's not that hard." Reikone said. "You're going to be even more pathetic that Sao if you don't, and Sao can be found in the dictionary under 'inept.'"

"Fine!" Bakura growled. "Ryou... ... ... ... ..."

"Come on!" Reikone encouraged.

"Chan." Bakura finally said. "There. I did it."

"You did not!" Reikone protested. "You have tot put it together! Repeat after me: Ryou-chan."

"ryou-chan." Bakura said very quietly.

"I didn't he-ar you!" Reikone caroled.

"Ryou-chan! There! Happy now?" he demanded. Ryou blushed.

Reikone poked Marik. "Your turn!"

"Malik-chan!" the yami said experimentally, not embarrassed in the least. Malik jumped.

"Don't do that!" he said, looking scandalized. "That's just creepy!"

"Malik-chan!" Marik said evilly, looking thrilled with a new way to annoy his hikari.

"Don't do thaaaat!" Malik whined.

"Malik-chan!" Marik repeated. Soon he was chasing Malik around as the hikari yelled at him to stop.

All eyes turned to Yami.

"What?" he said innocently.

"Your turn!" Reikone chirped.

"Oh... um... well..." he said, obviously fighting down pride.

"Come on, you can do it!"

"yugi... chan." he said very softly.

"What the hell is that? You can do better than that! We already said quiet doesn't count!"

"i seem to have come down with a sudden case of laryngitis." he said, still in the whisper.

"Oh, puh-lease." Sao said, looking very exasperated now that she had finally gotten into the activity. "You think I could get my keyboard in this form?"

"Prob'ly." Reikone said. "It'd count as channeling shadow magic, neh?"

"What?" Ryou asked, looking interested.

The girl's yami waved a hand as if tugging something and a computer keyboard appeared, floating in front of her.

"This is the Millennium keyboard!" Reikone chirped, and Sao facefaulted.

"Not... exactly." she muttered. "But anyhow, it's an authoress keyboard, and whatever I type on it comes true." She tapped on it quickly. "So, even if you _did_ have laryngitis, you don't anymore."

Yami looked discomfitted, puttering around for a different excuse.

"um... i seem... to have come down with... um... strep throat!" he said, still in a whisper.

"Come ON!" Sao cried exasperatedly. "If you had strep throat your hikari would have to have it, and Yugi seems fine!"

"What?" Yugi blinked at having been dragged into the conversation.

"..." Yami glared at her.

"Oh, come on!" Bakura leapt in. "Even I did it! You pussy! It's not that hard!"

Yami glared at him for that.

"On second thought, don't do it, then you'll be behind me forever!" Bakura crowed.

"Oh really! Yugi-chan!"

"Yes?" Yugi said, looking up.

Everyone facefaulted.

* * *

Sao: So, what do we think of the first chapter of Starting Today? It was originally developed as this one-shot about the yamis being bullied into calling the hikaris 'chan,' but it went on and is now a full fledged story, with plot arcs, none the less!

Reikone: We'll ignore for now that said plot arcs are very random and basically meaningless!

Sao: They are not meaningless! They're silly! And fluffy! And... Well... You have to look after Malik and Marik!

Reikone: Speaking of that... Where did they go?

Sao: (sweatdrop) Anyway... Though this one is partly told from Yugi's point of view, he and Yami basically disappear from the story after this and it centers on Ryou and Bakura, just so everyone's aware. I hope everyone enjoys it! Review! (Pretty please?)


End file.
